US Regulators Grapple with Self-Driving Vehicle Security

July 11, 2018—According to a report released on Tuesday, U.S. transportation regulators and others grappled with questions about whether police should have the power to disable self-driving cars and whether an automatic alert that a robo-taxi has been in a wreck could violate an occupant's privacy, reported Reuters.

The 39-page summary of the meetings from last March involved the U.S Transportation Department and industry, labor and advocacy groups, according to the report. The summary included legal, safety and social issues that have to be worked out as companies such as Alphabet Inc's Waymo unit and General Motors gear up to deploy self-driving cars for public use.

Participants allegedly agreed in the meetings that is a question of when, not if, there is a massive cyber security attack targeting autonomous vehicles.

“At the end of the day, policymakers likely need to answer 10 to 15 key questions,” Derek Kan, the Transportation Department’s undersecretary for policy, said in March, according to the summary and Reuters.

“These range from things like, how do you integrate with public safety officials? Should we require the exchange of data? What are our requirements around privacy or cyber security? And how do we address concerns from the disability and elderly communities?”

The Transportation Department is expected to release updated autonomous vehicle guidance later this summer.